Gwinnett County

Gwinnett commissioner escorted out of meeting after protester disruption

By Carl Willis
By Carl Willis

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County commissioner on Tuesday night was forced out of a local NAACP meeting he was invited to attend.

The commissioner had previously posted on Facebook that a Georgia congressman was a racist pig.

Protesters lined up outside the meeting and even just steps away from embattled Commissioner Tommy Hunter as he agreed to speak.

But it didn't last long.

Hunter was ushered out of the meeting abruptly after repeated heckling.

"I think that his publicist was waiting for that to happen and the audience gave him cause to usher him out," Gwinnett County NAACP President Marlyn Tillman told Channel 2’s Carl Willis.

Willis said members of the crowd were not happy when Hunter left.

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They had been calling for his resignation following his Facebook post where he responded to Rep. John Lewis' challenging Donald Trump's presidency by calling Lewis a racist pig.

"It’s horrifying that means this man doesn't even know the history of this state and of this country," NAACP member Jacques Laurent said.

Tillman said she's more disturbed by Hunter's alleged comments about his Democratic constituents.

“I'm much more concerned the language that he used in referencing them. Referred to them as demon rats and 'libtards,'” Tillman said.

Hunter did answer a few pre-written questions from the NAACP, but that only made the crowd restless.

"This was an opportunity to discourse and it didn't happen. He had no intention of speaking to the people," NAACP member Penny Poole told Willis.

The newly re-elected commissioner has no plans to resign. But the county has been asked to convene an ethics board, citing Hunter’s “unprofessional and inappropriate posts on Facebook.”

One woman told Willis she was embarrassed by the outcome of the meeting Tuesday night.

Most who attended Willis they weren't expecting much from the commissioner and will continue to call for his resignation.

Cox Media Group

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